Printers are common peripherals or accessories that may be used to generate printed outputs from an application operating on one or more computers. A printer may be configured to receive print requests from applications operating on a single, dedicated computer, or operating on one or more computers that may be connected to the printer via a network. Such applications may include word processors, accounting software, browsers or presentation programs, or any other type of application; and the printed output may be provided on paper or other suitable materials.
When a user of a computer application provides a print instruction to the application, an electronic document associated with the application (e.g., a word processing document, a spreadsheet, a rendered web page or a presentation) may be transmitted to the printer. A software application operating on the printer known as a printer driver may convert the electronic document into information or data that may be understood by the printer, and the information or data created by the printer driver may then serve as a genesis for the placement of portions of the electronic document on the printed output.
Many computers may be configured to print markings onto specially adapted paper or other planar or sheet-like materials having specific demarcations, regions or sectors formed thereon, such as labels that are to be applied to parcels, commercial products or other items. For example, a word processing application may be configured to place information within specific areas or frames of an electronic document, with one or more of the areas or frames corresponding to one or more demarcations, regions or sectors (e.g., a removable adhesive label) of a sheet. For example, when a sheet of adhesive removable labels is made available to a printer associated with or accessible to a word processing application, the information within the areas or frames of the electronic document may be printed onto the adhesive labels on the sheet. The adhesive labels may then be removed from the sheet and applied to any suitable surface.
Thus, computers and printers may be used to generate electronic documents having selected content that is placed into specific areas or frames, and to print the electronic documents onto one or more pieces of paper or other planar or sheet-like materials having demarcations, regions or sectors corresponding to the specific areas or frames of the electronic documents. The utility of such printed materials depends on the proper alignment and coordination between the specific areas or frames of an electronic document and the demarcations, regions or sectors of the paper on which the electronic document is to be printed.